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Vision

To help transition Japan to a peace promoting post-carbon country while enjoying every step of the process.僕のビジョンは、祖国日本で、平和文化を育みポストカーボン（Post-Carbon) 社会を促進してゆく事です。化石燃料や原子力に頼らず、他国の資源を取らない、自給自足な国へのトランジションを実現させてゆきたいです。

But, am I really crossing the Great Divide of alternative and mainstream culture.

How can I infiltrate the 99% who don't know what is happening?

From Fukushima to our mental environment.

How do I effectively engage with people who say to me:

Nuclear is good, safe, cheap, and necessary.

Democracy means voting.

News is objective.

Money and consumption is happiness.

Well, thats my ramble for the week.

Cultural transformation is my fascination at this moment in life,

and what I hope to study at University of Tokyo

Grad Program in Sustainability Sciences.

On that note, a little on culture jamming.

First a definition from wikiP:

Culture jamming denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.

Culture jamming is often seen as a form of subvertising. Many culture jams are intended to expose apparently questionable political assumptions behind commercial culture. Common tactics include re-figuring logos, fashion statements, and product images as a means to challenge the idea of "what's cool" along with assumptions about the personal freedoms of consumption.

I've been envisioning what an occupy movement would look like in Japan.

The most appropriate target seems like TEPCO,

the corporation responsible for the nuclear meltdown.

Like the Wall Street banks,

they are also receiving a huge government bailout,

as they are "too big to fail."

This is a most catastrophic tragedy on so many levels.

I just met a man who is planning to dismantle TEPCO, and he made a interesting case about how it is a matter of time before they go bankrupt.

I also just found out that there is an encampment around the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (also heavily responsible for the nuclear meltdown and aftermath) that started on 11/11 with 1300 people. It is a month long demonstration. This follows a ten day encampment of women from all over Japan at the same location. Looks like things are picking up in Japan. Still, as expected, there is hardly any media coverage and its hard to gauge how many people support this movement in Japan.

They do the rest of the work of strategically presenting the petition.

So easy.

I read a persuasive criticism on clicktivism in Adbusters but I think AVAAZ and other similar organisations have been doing important work and have been effective in many ways. I do think that if activism is reduced to a mere clicking of the mouse, we will ultimately lose the ability to make important changes in our problem-abundant world. But, its a low-energy way to spread the message globally, get people involved, and pressure those in power to listen to the concerned citizens of the world a little more.

Here is the call for support:

Right now, thousands of local residents are still trapped in the highly contaminated areas in and around Fukushima City. With black rain falling from the sky and local crops poisoned, children in families left destitute by the tsunami can’t afford to get out-- and the government is failing to help them.

But a group of brave mothers have taken to the streets to ensure their children are helped out of the disaster zone. Hundreds of supporters from around the country have gathered for a sit-in outside the Ministry of Economy in Tokyo demanding that Prime Minister Noda grant their children the opportunity to evacuate. We can stand with them.

This is, literally, the fight of their lives. Children, sitting in the midst of radioactive contamination, don’t have a day to lose. In just 24 hours, the government will decide whether to act at an emergency meeting -- let's build a giant outcry for a healthy future for Fukushima children. Sign the urgent petition below and forward this email widely -- it will be delivered directly to the Prime Minister's office before the meeting.

Right now our country has a clear choice. We can embrace family values, and rebuild our nation to give all our children a future, or we can continue to ignore those who are facing hardship and neglect. Fukushima's families don’t have a moment to lose -- every day exposed to radiation massively increases the chances of serious health problems.

We know that the grueling effects of long-term radiation-exposure passes through generations, impacting the health of not only today’s children, but their children’s children. In the aftermath of Chernobyl, the Soviet Union evacuated people from land which had considerably less radiation than some of the areas in question in Japan. The children of Fukushima City, trapped in a radioactive environment, will not be able to extricate themselves from this severe threat to their health without government support for voluntary evacuation. Yet the government won’t trigger evacuation until contamination in an area reaches a level that is four times greater than the threshold the Soviets set for mandatory evacuation after Chernobyl, 25 years ago.

If tens of thousands of Japanese citizens raise the alarm now, we could tip the balanceand bring hope to hundreds of families. Together let’s build a giant public outcry to show Prime Minister Noda that our country's honour is at stake and urge him to stand up and save lives. The government meeting is in 2 days – sign now then forward this email to everyone.

Japan was rocked on March 11th and we’re still coming to terms with the scale of the destruction. But out of the devastation comes a chance to rebuild -- our country is united more than ever, people are ready to act to make things better for all Japanese citizens. Right now, we can begin to lay the foundation for a healthy future for Japan's children and children's children.

Monday, November 7, 2011

I will be presenting this friday in Osaka about City Repair and Urban Permaculture

at the Transition Town Cafe gathering in Tenouji from 19:00.

It will be a potluck slideshow event with hopefully lots of great discussion.

PS I've been thinking about running an Urban Permaculture and Community Organising weekend workshop, potentially on the first weekend of December in Tokyo. I want to flood Tokyo with permies and ambitious cultural activists. More on that soon.

Welcome!

ようこそ！

You have arrived to a bilingual blog about sustainability, permaculture, and peace activism. Yeah! Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.Thanks for visiting and I hope you spread the seeds:) *the ratio of English to Japanese changes unexpectedly so if there is a lot of strange foreign characters, check out older articles might have the more familiar alphabet.

About Me

A "half", as they call us in Japan, who grew up in metropolis and rural Japan, Hawaii, Santa Cruz CA, Central America, and now Orcas Island WA. Taking a stroll through the path of permaculture, mindfulness, and love. Looking for more like-minded people in Japan or people interested in transforming Japan...
百姓／平和活動家／パーマカルチャー・デザイナーのヒヨコです。ブロックス・パーマカルチャー・ホームステッド（ワシントン州のオーカス島）で弟子入り生活をしていましたが、今は東京で平和と愛を育む活動をしています。先生、仲間、プロジェクト、土地を捜しています！